


hope is the hardest love we carry

by smallredboy



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gen, M/M, POV Molly Graham, Post-Episode: s03e13 The Wrath of the Lamb, Therapy, cannibalism & murder talk, hints of dark!Bedelia, molly sweetie im so sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:35:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23206354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallredboy/pseuds/smallredboy
Summary: Molly goes to see Bedelia for therapy, and her hopes are shattered.
Relationships: Bedelia Du Maurier & Molly Graham, Molly Graham/Will Graham, Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter
Comments: 6
Kudos: 131
Collections: Ladies Bingo 2019





	hope is the hardest love we carry

**Author's Note:**

> **ladies bingo:** it wasn't meant to be
> 
> again, i've got feelings about molly graham. 
> 
> enjoy!

Molly wouldn't know to say if therapy with Dr. Du Maurier is working, but it definitely has led to interesting conversations. There's a silence hanging by a thread about her missing leg, the metallic sheen of the prosthetic seen if the sunlight hits it just right.

Dr. Du Maurier draws in a breath and lets out a long-suffering sigh, like it's taking all her energy to let it out as she looks down at her own lap. Then, she looks at Molly.

"Must I break you out of delusion myself, Mrs. Graham?" she asks.

Molly blinks. "What delusion? I am not delusional." She isn't even mentally ill, per se, she wouldn't say; she's just traumatized from the Red Dragon's home invasion and her husband's disappearance. "What are you referring to?"

Dr. Du Maurier sighs and looks away from her at a point on the window. "The delusion that your husband is coming back," she says.

Molly nearly stands up, biting the inside of her cheek in a silent anger. "He _is_ coming back," she says. "He has to."

She turns to face her once again, her eyes cold but… pitiful. Like she's a poor wounded animal. She doesn't enjoy the way Dr. Du Maurier looks at her.

"I am not sorry to break you into reality, Mrs. Graham," she says, hands folded over her lap. "Your husband will not come back to you for any other reason than for his own husband to eat you."

"Dr. Du Maurier!" she exclaims. "I didn't marry—"

"You married a damaged man," she interrupts her, voice raising a little with impatience. "You married a man who was in the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. You married a man who was well known in psychiatric circles for his cocktail of neuroses. You married a man who became known because the Chesapeake Ripper surrendered to the FBI in front of his cabin." She huffs. "Did he never tell you about his relationship with Hannibal Lecter?"

"He told me he was his psychiatrist before he framed him for murder. That he worked at catching him for many months before he fled to Italy."

"That is it?"

"Yes."

Dr. Du Maurier glances at her with so much pity it makes her angry. She wants to scream that she's not something to be pitied, that she knew what she signed herself up for when she married Will Graham. But with every passing day she's more and more aware that she did not know what she signed herself up for. 

"They drugged me and amputated my leg together, Mrs. Graham," she says. Molly's stomach flips. "I was awake as I saw them cook it. They were both happy, bickering and calling each other pet names. He looked more alive than I ever saw him be while he was married to you."

"He's still married to me," she tries to argue.

"Legally," Dr. Du Maurier tells her. "But emotionally, I do not think he was ever married to you." She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. "He's decided he belongs to someone else. I think he decided that before you knew him."

Molly wants to scream. She'd always hoped the best for Will; always hoped that he was a good man deep down, that he knew what he was doing, that he did not have any attachment toward Hannibal Lecter. But she had always known the truth; she was just in denial about the fact she had married this man, fascinated and enamored with the man who had ruined his life.

"Perhaps he did," she agrees quietly.

"He's in love with Hannibal Lecter," Dr. Du Maurier says. "Hannibal didn't corrupt him, per se, as many will try to claim as soon as my story hits the newspapers. He just worked hard to unravel what had always been there."

A cold sweat goes up Molly's spine.

"Do you really believe he will not come to see me any time except to kill me?"

"I am certain of it," she nods. "Hannibal's keen on eating pigs, but sometimes he, too, eats people who he respects in some level or another. I think he respects you, but he wants you to be out of the picture. And what better way for Will to show him his loyalty than for him to eat his wife?"

It makes too much sense. Just how much sense it makes is making Molly sick. If she's ever going to see her husband again, it will be for him to kill her. 

"Do you think they will kill Wally too?" she asks, voice hanging by a thread.

Dr. Du Maurier purses her lips together. "I believe that would remind Hannibal too much of his sister. I think they will let him live."

That's what makes Molly break into tears. She wants Wally to live, obviously, but he will live through too much trauma, too much and too soon, too pressed together. The years of therapy that he'll require, the fact he'll deal with all of it alone… she can't stand the thought. Tears slide down her cheeks, and Dr. Du Maurier impassively hands her some tissues.

"Why didn't they kill you?" she asks.

Dr. Du Maurier smiles at her. There's pity in her eyes once again. "Because I am worth something to Hannibal. I can tell everyone that they're together and that they amputated my leg. Your story would bring nothing new to the table, Mrs. Graham."

Molly draws in a shaky breath and closes her eyes, leaning her head against her hands, them clasped together in a worthless, wordless prayer.

"This is not helping my _recovery process_ , Dr. Du Maurier," she says, voice thick with tears and snot.

Dr. Du Maurier smiles at her, shows her teeth. "I'm well-aware, Mrs. Graham."

Bedelia Du Maurier might not act on it, but Molly knows that she is something wicked herself, waiting to be unraveled by something or other. She hopes she's not the one doing the unraveling.


End file.
